What's a good fantasy mapping program?

[Alzrius]

I'm beginning to grow tired of using my erasable 26 x 30 battlemat in my weekly game. Don't get me wrong, it's nice and its gets the job done, but I think I'm ready for the maps that I lay out for my part to start looking (at least somewhat) like the maps in the adventures I buy, rather than squiggly lines on a grid.

Hence, it seems like the time to look into buying a good fantasy mapping program. Unfortunately, I have absolutely no idea what products are out there, let alone what has the resources I'm looking for. Thus I'm turning to my EN World brethren to advise me on what's a good program for making maps on my computer.

In general, I'm looking for the following things:

Intuitive Interface - I really can't stress this one enough. How easy the program is to use is very important. If it's easy to manage, easy to make it do what I want it to do, then I'll probably be using it a lot. If operating it is difficult to learn and a chore to operate, then it'll probably end up being a wasted purchase. I don't want to have to code or graphically design my own icons, or enter complicated calculations to change the map area.

Details - While I know that no program can necessarily have all of the mapping details that everyone would want, more is always better. Does it have icons for doors, windows, torches, tables, treasure chests, and more? Will it show mountains, forests, roads, rivers, etc.? Are there (simple) ways to add more, whether by making them or buying add-ons?

Exporting - My main goal with this is that I can print off the maps I make (to US letter-sized paper, 8.5 x 11 inches). However, other kinds of exporting would be a nice bonus. Can I turn the map into a JPG or PDF? Or is it something that will live in a proprietary file format forever?

Squares and Hexes - The majority of the mapping I'm looking for is dungeon-mapping (scaled to print at square inch grids), which is done on a grid. However, hex mapping would also be nice for outdoor areas. As a bonus, it'd be nice to be able to remove the grid/hex lines if I want (and, as a bonus, to not have the mapping artificially restriced by grids and hexes - e.g. to have a lake mapped out so that it didn't have to conform to hex shapes).

Is this a pipe-dream, or does such a mapping program actually exist?

 

[Madeiner]

Exporting - My main goal with this is that I can print off the maps I make (to US letter-sized paper, 8.5 x 11 inches). However, other kinds of exporting would be a nice bonus. Can I turn the map into a JPG or PDF? Or is it something that will live in a proprietary file format forever?

Of course you can, with any piece of software. Print screen - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[Alzrius]

Of course you can, with any piece of software. Print screen - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

True, but I did mention after that (in reference to grids and hexes) printing at a square-inch grid scale...something that's possible, but fairly imprecise, with just sizing up a screen-grab.

 

[Lwaxy]

No, such a program does not really exist for real quality maps. Either you have to learn a lot of graphics stuff or you need to learn to work with non-intuitive programs - or both.

I use CC3, but it is not intuitive and frustrates me a lot. I can do cool things on it, yes, it has grid options, symbols (which you can also create yourself) and easily creates jpgs out of the maps. It definitely can't do other things, like zoom easily (big big issue for me and some other users).

If you need/want a lot of cool maps, make yourself a library. There are so many maps out there - I have collected so many I really need to do very little mapping on my own.

A good place to start is the Cartographer's Guild. Most map creators there will allow you to use the maps for private use offline, some even give permission to use them online if you don't forget to credit them and tell them where you play. There are also people to help you with specific maps you may need.

 

[kitsune9]

I use two mapping programs myself. Dundjinni and Campaign Cartographer. Dundjinni is strictly built around the 1 inch square = 5". Unfortunately, Dundjinni is no longer available for sale though the website is still up and serves as an excellent forum to get maps and tiles for other mapping programs.

Campaign Cartographer is the other program, but you should get Dungeon Designer to go along with it. CC has a print function in which you can set the map at 5' = 1 inch. CC does have a bit of a learning curve; however, that's dealt with some excellent tutorials by Joseph Sweeney. Google his name on Youtube after you purchase this product and you'll be up to speed on creating some cool-looking maps.

Both of these programs supporting exporting to jpg though CC loses a lot of fine detail every time I do it. Dundjinni comes out perfect. Both of these programs allow you to switch your grids at various levels, thickness, color. CC has a lot more options on grids though and you can add map effects to them.

There are other mapping programs--Fractal Mapper (not familiar with it), Autorealm (a free mapper, but never got around to playing with it), and MapTools (not familiar with it).

Using a mapping program though takes some time, particularly if you want to make some decent maps and if you want to create the awesome maps that you see in websites like the Cartographer's Guild, you'll need to learn Photoshop or GIMP (the free photoshop clone) and learn all about layering. However, it doesn't involve programming so that's a plus I guess.

 

[gamerprinter]

Lwaxy provides the link to your best source for maps, map objects, information of mapping software, tutorials, etc, and that is the Cartographers' Guild.

Regarding your points:

Intuitive Interface - what is intuitive for one person may not be intuitive to another, it's really a personal thing as to what is specifically intuitive or not. Many of the mappers at the CG mentioned above use Photoshop or GIMP for most of their mapping - and to me, neither are very intuitive, nor even user friendly. But that doesn't stop most cartographers from using those programs to create most fantasy maps. Xara Xtreme Pro 4 (which the current version of this software is Xara Designer 6), but I find to be very intuitive, except it is not a mapping program per se, rather a vector drawing application with powerful raster image capability. I think it's more intuitive than PS or GIMP, and more intuitive than CC3 or Dunjini as well. (Xara is my graphics application of choice).

Details - now your specifically talking about map objects. Three things regarding this.

One: having a set of map objects built into software specifically applies to mapping software like Campaign Cartographer (CC3), which is a kind of CAD program (and in my opinion, the furthest software from being intuitive and easy to use.)

Two: map objects can be found in all kinds of places - Cartographers Guild, Dunjini forum, MapTool forum, and host of other mapping related sites. Many are free, some you have to pay for.

Three: most graphic applications can import images such as map objects, and transparent PNG files are probably best for this. As mentioned in my first paragraph, most fantasy cartographers use Photoshop or GIMP (or in my case Xara) to create our maps. But these are NOT mapping applications, rather full blown graphics applications that can be used for any kind of graphic creation. Most pros use this kind of software and import varying map objects needed for their maps. Me, I create all my map objects from scratch using Xara, then import what I need to the map file I am working on. Also Photoshop uses custom brushes, many map objects can be converted to brushes, and placed on maps that way.

Exporting: virtually all mapping applications and graphics applications used to create maps can export to a normal graphics format like: BMP, PDF, PSD, JPG, TIF. CC3 is limited to exporting in BMP format which can be problematic, but really all such software can export to formats you can use forever.

Squares and Hexes: now your back to talking specifically mapping applications like Campaign Cartographer or Fractal Mapper, and many others. You can always choose hex or square grid to place onto your maps. For the rest of us that use standard graphics applications to create our maps - there is no built in square or hex grid, rather you create your own grid and place it on the map, on top of everything else, or for mappers like me, I place the grid just above the floor, but below the walls and other objects on the map.

I'm a professional fantasy cartographer, that is, I create maps for many publishers (and for my own publications). In fact, in the upcoming part 6 of Paizo's Jade Regent adventure path, the capital city of Minkai (Pathfinder's Japanland) is based on my design, although their own cartographer redid the map to be consistent with other maps already created. The map I created has over 8500 buildings in it, all drawn by hand. (Which is something I didn't say above, but most of my maps are hand-drawn, scanned and imported to Xara, then finished: colors, bevels, drop shadows, feathering, map object placement, grid, labels using software.) So I know what I'm talking about...

Here's a link to maps I've created using Xara Xtreme Pro 4 and are posted in a thread in the Media Lounge at ENWorld - Gamerprinter's Map Emporeum... so you can see what I create.

 

[OnlineDM]

I run my games online and in-person using MapTool. Online is obvious; in-person, I use a projector to put the map on the table. I'm a big evangelist for this approach, but I know you want to go with printing.

I do recommend MapTool for an easy-to-use map-drawing program, assuming we're talking about tactical battle maps and not world maps. My MapTool Education Central can help here - especially the part about getting the images you need for maps. This will give you all of the background textures and objects you're asking about.

I like MapTool because of the price (free!) and the ease of use. The grid is fantastically helpful, and freely resizeable. You can have objects snap to grid or not. You can freely resize and rotate objects as you wish. There's just tons of awesomeness without being hard to use.

As for printing these maps, what I do is described here. I'm resizing my maps to a one square = 50 pixels scale; you're going for one square = one inch. Same thing in the end, just do the math a little differently (go with inches instead of pixels in Paint.NET). Once you have the image sized the way you want it, use PosteRazor to create a PDF that's perfect for printing and assembling from normal letter-sized paper.

Have fun!

 

[innerdude]

Alzrius--

As someone who was basically in your exact same shoes around 2 years ago, let me tell you my experience.

I took a long, hard look at all of the available map programs I knew of at the time--Campaign Cartographer, Dundjinni, and Fractal Mapper.

Being fairly computer savvy, I ultimately went with Campaign Cartographer, because it seemed to be the most powerful.

And I went at it with a vengeance. I produced a series of maps for a campaign I was working on at the time, but man it was slow going. And no matter what I did, it just never looked as sharp or professional as the stuff I saw over on Cartographer's Guild.

Then I found out that the real "pros" pretty much eschew stuff like CC3 and Fractal Mapper. They do everything by hand, or use one of the professional / semi-professional graphics programs (Photoshop, Illustrator, GIMP, Xara, or in most cases a combination of several).

Ultimately I became very dissatisfied with my purchase of CC3, not because I didn't figure out how to use it, but because the learning curve and time investment was too steep to produce stuff I didn't really end up liking much anyway.

So, if you're wanting to produce high-end, pro-quality work, don't waste your money on any mapping software. Go download the GIMP for free (it's open source), and start going through the numerous tutorials on Cartographer's Guild. If budget is a concern, stick to the open source stuff. The GIMP is a must have, but you might also want Inkscape to do some vector drawing as well to import into the GIMP later.

If you have a little bit of budget ($50-$100), I'd recommend Xara as someone already mentioned. It's a slick little program, but there's not nearly as many tutorials for it as the GIMP for fantasy mapping.

NOW--if you don't care about producing super high-end, high quality stuff, but just want something to throw some maps together that look decent, and you don't want them hand drawn, frankly I'd go with Fractal Mapper. It's much, much more intuitive than CC3, and since you know going into it that the results aren't going to be super high-caliber, the speed more than makes up for the few bells and whistles that CC3 might have over it.

Of course, if budget is no object, just go buy the Adobe Creative Suite CS5.

However, one thing I will say in favor of buying a mapping software first---CC3 taught me a lot of the basic "tricks" behind how various effects happen when doing mapping, stuff like transparency, layers, blending, inner/outer glow edges, beveling, etc. I was much, much better prepared to start doing my mapping in Photoshop and Illustrator after having used CC3.

One minor edit: I also ended up getting the CC3 and City Designer expansion, which came with some nice city building artwork pre-built that I could use in my other programs. I don't know if that justified the price of paying for both of them, but it certainly lessened the sting a little bit, since I can use all of their hi-resolution artwork in my other drawings, even if I'm not using the program.

2nd minor edit: Also, regardless of which path you choose, A. you're going to lose a lot of hours to making maps, and B. you won't care in the least, because it's PRETTY STINKIN' FUN.

 

[Matrix Sorcica]

This is a little flash based tool that's very helpful.

 

[Hand of Evil]

The problem is that mapping programs are only going to put out what you put into them. I say download the demos and try to find the best for your needs. I use both CC2 and NBOS Fractal Mapper both are very good programs.

There are also a number of maps here in the Media-lounge that you may want to look at.

http://www.enworld.org/forum/media-...k-stuff/300141-map-monday-2011-completed.html